[TheProf]

Originally Posted by marc_eds

TheProf offers many specific examples. FWIW, here's my reply:

Wharton Center = fine if you want to go on to campus and see touring shows of over produced Broadway musicals and dance companies, or the occasional interesting lecture (David Sedaris, Michael Pollan). I prefer the student productions in the old Auditorium on campus. I also prefer supporting the local community theatre companies in Lansing. There were six active troupes when I moved to Lansing in 2008. That number is rapidly shrinking as many are closing up.


Bookstores = aside from two Schulers locations (nice Michigan-based bookstores) and one B&N on the west side, there's a very small used bookstore downtown East Lansing with a side room selling antiquarian and older books attached to a coffee shop down the street. Much better bookstores in Ann Arbor, Fernalde, and the used bookstore to beat all bookstores - John King Books in downtown Detroit.

EL Art Festival, along with the art fair in Ann Arbor, have typical vendors and artists for midwestern art shows (photography, glazed pottery) similar to 4th St in Bloomington, but not of the caliber such as Penrod in Indianapolis. Grand Rapids has a stellar art show (not fair) called Art Prize throughout the entire city. Grand Rapids is (perhaps fairly, perhaps not) characterized as the capital of neoconservatism for the state of Michigan, but whenever I meet a funky, cool, artistic hip person in Lansing - guess where they live? Grand Rapids and they happen to visiting in Lansing.

And to add some more context to my set-up to Purdue/IU and MSU/UM, it's inarguable that MSU and Purdue share the academic culture of land-grant institutions in which the lion's share of doc students and faculty are in the hard sciences, applied sciences, agriculture, packaging, hospitality, medical/veterinary sciences, etc. Yes, there are fine arts & letters/humanities faculty and students at MSU, but they're not the dominant institutional force unlike at U of M (and IU, respectively). As a result this plays out in the community culture wherein there's a lack of upscale restaurants in the greater Lansing area (Troppo is fine for downtown Lansing, Enso's is ok, but when we have faculty candidates coming to MSU applying for jobs we almost always end up taking them to Dusty's Cellar, an overpriced bistro in a strip mall in Okemos, or even further east in a tony suburb called Williamston, where there's fine restaurants downtown -- why aren't there more of these in Lansing/East Lansing? In Ann Arbor you can throw a rock in any direction and hit four or five of these kinds of places). Why does this matter when you're asking about a lesbian community? Because there need to be viable, non-university-centric civic and commercial spaces for lesbian, bi, gay, trans* people to commune with significant civic capacity, not only as quirky university folk. Town-gown relations aren't strained in East Lansing, they're just kind of...meh? Untapped? East Lansing may be tolerant in a municipal sort of way (don't say gay), but Lansing Pride is pitifully small compared to other pride festivals in the state. Size/quantity don't always matter, but sometimes they do...

I'm not disputing what you're saying, just adding a little context... Yes, Purdue and MSU's town culture is more similar than UM-IU's... I just wanted to note that Purdue and MSU have differences, even though they are both rooted in the land grant/hard sciences culture -- and I think they are significant. Yes, Purdue is engineering par-excellence; the MIT of the Midwest in some cultures, but it is less "rounded" than MSU in terms of the arts... And I think that interprets into a bit more artsy/liberal culture of MSU/EL versus Purdue/WL... To me, East Lansing is somewhere in between Ann Arbor and West Lafayette...

... Whether its related (I think it is), I do know that East Lansing is doggedly LGBT friendly. I don't know as much about Lansing Pride or its LGBT community, but I'd have to think that it is at least somewhat influenced by MSU, which is one of the Big 3 employers/influences in this 500K metro area along with state government and GM.